I have just purchased a 1907 colonial home in Montclair, New Jersey. There are a lot of great wood mouldings around the windows, crown mouldings, and beams across the ceilings. However, the previous owner did not show a whole lot of care for the place. When they painted, they got white paint all over the edges of the wood. I would guess in all, over 200 lineal feet of moulding is tarnished by their over-paint. Any ideas on how to try and save the wood?
Ideally, the work would be done in place because I don’t want to destroy all of the wood trying to remove it. I tried some goo-gone on one inconspicuous spot and it kind of worked but a ton of elbow grease!!! It also seemed to discolor/remove the stain below.
Any ideas would be great!
Thanks!
Apryll
Replies
Apryll, this is something to try, tho not maybe the first thing you do. If the molding is flat where the paint is, not intricate with a bunch of ins and outs, I have taken anything from a hand scraper, plane iron, putty knife, a pc of plastic laminate with a square edge, heck even a flat blade screw driver and pulled along the flat, scaping the paint off. Many times that's all that comes off, sometimes you lift the finish coating along with it. If all else you try doesn't work, you can try something like this. Be careful and know how you are going to reseal/touch up stain the trim b/4 you go too far. Best of luck.
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Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
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Very sharp scrapers and very fine sandpaper would be my tools of choice.
Excellence is its own reward!
I've seen pros do the same. Doesn't really tick you off?
As the others have said, a sharp scraper means a lot.
But I've had some awfully good results with Goof-Off. Not to be confused with Goo Gone. You'll find it in the paint area of the big boxes.
It works well on latex paint. Forget it if's oil based.
Actually, acetone and lacquer thinner will do it.
I would try to disolve it off before I scraped anything. One of those depends things, perhaps you could soft scrape some of the mess off first, but to make it look like nothing happened is going to take some time.
You get into a weird place here. The edges on their best day weren't sealed that well, and whatever you try is likely to be a problem. Now you also have to detail up against an old plaster?
I don't like the scraping thing, but go around and see if that will work, and to what extent. Then disolve by softening with a rag soaked in solvent, and control the area you work on by wrapping the rag over the end of a putty knife, of something like that.
IF it's latex paint and depending what the clear finish is on the
wood.........naphtha may get the job done for you. If all conditions are appropriate, you would be able to remove any latex paint without damaging the clear finish of the wood mouldings.
try alcohol